THE PONDS PARKLANDS: RIPARIAN CORRIDOR

Blacktown, NSW

Water management was an important part of the benchmark residential Ponds development, located on 80 hectares of parkland along Second Ponds Creek in the Cumberland Plain landscape.

CLOUSTON created three water-treatment areas to clean 2.5 million litres of urban stormwater by using wetland filters, macrophytes, sand filtering, aeration and UV exposure to open water. Not only do these promote a healthy ecosystem, they are also eye-catching sustainability initiatives that provide aesthetic and recreational advantages for the residential community.

Dragonfly Pond – Working with lead engineering consultant J. Wyndham Prince, CLOUSTON Associates was responsible for the shaping, layout and aesthetics of the pond and bowls. An attractive “marker”, visible from a key entrance into the suburb, this pond features a 36-metre-long decorative panel, constructed of 12 Corten steel, depicting dragonflies. The insects rely on clean, fresh water to breed – a poetic reference to the pond’s water-quality function.

Jilluk Pond – This is fed directly by an urbanised catchment of 23 hectares, receiving up to 7000 litres per second during a peak event. It has a detention capacity of up to 500,000 litres, accommodating a six-month storm event, with a large underwater storage tank maintaining its function in dry periods. The system employs a gross pollutant trap, an open-water zone for UV exposure and a macrophyte zone for nutrient uptake. It also utilises two large rain garden media beds that provide phosphorous, nitrogen and total suspended solid removal from the stormwater. The northern edge of the pond features a large gabion wall, mirroring the Dragonfly Pond. Offsetting this is a curved walkway linking the two sides of the creek line and forming the detention basin dam wall.

Paddle Street Pond – This pond is fed by a 66-hectare urban catchment, some of which is diverted overland through an existing park outside the Ponds estate, where it is partly filtered by a grass-lined swale and existing farm dam. The water is split into three ponds, each comprising a macrophyte zone, then flowing by a long hydraulic path into a clear-water zone. After it leaves the pond it is further treated by filtering through a 450-millimetre-deep rain garden media bed, before flowing into Second Ponds creek on its way to Cattai Creek and the Hawkesbury River. The pond was designed to have a sculptural form as well as being an aesthetic visible element for nearby residences.